Saint Paul's from the South

A prolific watercolourist, Albert Goodwin enjoyed a successful career as an artist known for his ability to impart “a touch of fairy influence to his landscapes.” At the age of fifteen, he exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy, London, that bespoke his training under the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Robert Hughes. Goodwin later became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown, another painter of the same circle, and eventually merged the influences of Joseph Mallord William Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites in his work. The English art critic John Ruskin showed an early admiration for Goodwin’s art. The two men made an extensive tour through Italy and Switzerland. Goodwin subsequently travelled to Egypt, the West Indies, North America and New Zealand, whose scenery inspired him. His landscapes from closer to home, such as this turn-of-the-century scene of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, illustrate a documentary interest and owe their dramatic effect to the artist’s esteem for Turner.